As much as a history buff I profess to be, I had never heard of Juneteenth. Lincoln freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but it only applied to states in rebellion. So those slaves weren't really freed until Union officials came to their areas and told them they were free to go. In Galveston, word didn't get out until Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Texas and proclaimed the slaves there free on June 19, 1865. The date has become a holiday -- especially in the black community. Laura Garcia wrote a story about the history of the date. We paired that with a listing of area events and a couple of historical images and put it all on a parchment texture. June 19, 2015